South Korea is set to start using artificial-intelligence powered facial recognition system and thousands of CCTV cameras to track the movements of people infected with the coronavirus in the country.
This system uses an artificial intelligence algorithms and facial recognition to analyze footages from captured by over 10,820 CCTV cameras and track the movements of an infected person including anyone they had close contact with.
“The nationally funded project in Bucheon, one of the country’s most densely populated cities on the outskirts of Seoul, is due to become operational in January,” said a city official.
The city submitted a 110-business plan which has captured the entire plan and how it will be working to the Ministry of Science and ICT. The Bucheon official further stated that the system will also be reducing the work of overworked contact tracing teams who have been working in the city with a population of over 800,000 people.
The plan indicates that the system is created in such a way that it will overcome the fact that contact tracing teams have to majorly rely on the testimony of coronavirus patients which at many times is not a very effective method since the patients lie at times about their whereabouts and activities.
“It sometimes takes hours to analyse a single CCTV footage. Using visual recognition technology will enable that analysis in an instant,” tweeted Bucheon mayor Jang Deog-cheon, who belives the system will make contact tracing easier and efficient.
